The African Librarysites platform: Official Launch & Orientation

30 JANUARY 2023

Overview

Critical to building stronger libraries, and achieving SDG4 and Aspiration 1 and 5 of the AU Agenda 2063 is understanding the library and information sector of Africa. Unfortunately, there is very little data especially about public and community libraries in Africa. This hampers efforts to develop the library sector and its impact on their communities, in general, and opportunities to work in partnership with development agencies. 

The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA), working in partnership with the Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA) of the University of Washington, Seattle, USA with financial support from the Global Libraries Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has since 2017 been developing a system to make libraries in Africa more visible to stakeholders, potential partners and their users. The project is called the Advancing Library Visibility in Africa (ALVA). 

Through this project, an integrated platform (website) known as the African Librarysites platform has been developed to crowdsource and host data about libraries in Africa – including GPS coordinates of libraries, display hosted data in various user-friendly downloadable visual charts and also give free access to end users to download (filterable) library datasets hosted on the platform.

AfLIA invites all library and information professionals and stakeholders within the African Library Sector to participate in a virtual launch ceremony for the African Librarysites platform. Following the launch, AfLIA will hold orientation sessions in English, French and Portuguese to demonstrate how to navigate the platform including contributing library data, exploring library maps, visualizing library statistics and exporting library datasets, among others.

Sessions and Dates

SN	Event	Date	Time
1	Official launch	7th February 2023	2pm GMT
2	Orientation for English speakers	7th February, 2023	3pm GMT
3	Orientation for French speakers [FRANÇAIS] Orientation pour les francophones	8th February, 2023	12noon GMT
4	Orientation for Portuguese speakers [PORTUGUÊS] Orientação para falantes de português	9th February, 2023	12noon GMT

Registration

This is a open session. After signing up, you will receive notification via email with unique details of how to join the webinar via Zoom.

Kindly read the section on Technical Requirements to help you prepare adequately for this webinar.

Technical Requirements

Upon registration, reminders will be sent to all registrants periodically. This webinar will be hosted on Zoom Conferencing Platform. Participants, who do not have Zoom on their mobile devices and or computers, need to download, install and create an account on Zoom ahead of time (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD). Webinar attendees are encouraged to join early, preferably 15 minutes before the start of the webinar, as one may need time launch the application. The speaker will use a webcam to connect with attendees. Audio and video for the session will be streamed over computer speakers. Attendees are therefore encouraged to connect with a headset or earpiece for maximum utility.

Webinar Materials

A list of resources and further information will made be available at the end of the webinar, to enable thorough engagement with the webinar content. All registrants will have access to the presentation slides. The webinar recording will be uploaded on AfLIA Youtube Channel soon after the webinar to facilitate continuous engagement with the webinar content by attendees and non-attendees.

Queries

For further enquiries and any assistance relating to the webinar, contact us at afliacomm@aflia.net.